Robert L. Lippert
Robert L. Lippert (March 31, 1909 - November 10, 1976) was a prolific film producer responsible for several films featured on MST3K, including Rocketship X-M and Lost Continent. He was also cinema owner who eventually owned a chain of 118 theatres.Variety Obituaries 24 Nov 1976 Biography Born in and adopted by the owner of a hardware store, Lippert became fascinated by the cinema at an early age. Young Lippert worked a variety of jobs in local theatres including projection and becoming an assistant manager. As a manager of a cinema during the , Lippert encouraged regular attendance with promotions such as "Dish Night" and "Book Night." Lippert went from cinema manager to owning a chain of California cinemas in 1942 during the peak years of theatre attendance.http://mst3k.booyaka.com/episodes/directors/robert_lippert.txt Screen Guild Productions and Lippert Pictures Dissatisfied with sometimes exorbitant rental charges from major studios, Lippert formed in 1945 with a Western called Wildfire, made in .Fernett, Gene Hollywood's Poverty Row 1930-1950''1973 Coral Reef Publications Screen Guild also rereleased many older B picture Westerns and made 22 pictures under the name of Screen Guild.ibid Screen Guild became in 1948 utilising rental stages and to make their films. One hundred thirty Lippert features were released between 1948 and 1955. Lippert read a article about a proposed trip to and landing on the moon that he rushed his film ''Rocketship X-M into production. Its destination had to change to Mars to avoid copying George Pal's , even though Rocketship X-M was first into the cinemas. produced and directed several films for Lippert including many Westerns with . Lippert had a reciprocal agreement with to distribute each other's films in their own countries. When screenwriter wanted to break into direction, he agreed to direct the 3 films he had been contracted to write for Lippert ( , , and ) for no extra money.Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face Alfred A Knopf (2002) 20th Century Fox and Regal Pictures When announced his process, he faced hostility from many cinema owners who had gone to great expense to convert their theatres to show 3-D films that Hollywood had stopped making. Zanuck assured the cinema owners that they sould have a large supply of Cinemascope product by making Cinemascope lenses available to other film companies and started a unit, led by Lippert, called in 1956 to mass produce B pictures in the process. Lippert's Regal produced 180 pictures.Fernett, Gene. Hollywood's Poverty Row 1930-1950 1973 Coral Reef Publications Faced with the increasing costs of Hollywood Production, Lippert announced in 1962 that he would be making films offshore in England, Italy ( ), and the Philippines. Lippert maintained and expanded his chain of 118 theatres until his death. His son, Robert L. Lippert, Jr., followed his father into producing. Riffed Movies *''Rocketship X-M'' (Experiment #201) - producer *''Jungle Goddess'' (Experiment #203) - producer *''Lost Continent'' (Experiment #208) - producer *''King Dinosaur'' (Experiment #210) - producer *''Radar Secret Service'' (Experiment #520) - producer *''Last of the Wild Horses'' (Experiment #611) - director, producer References External links *Robert L. Lippert at the Internet Movie Database Lippert, Robert L. Category:Infamous filmmakers Category:Deceased filmmakers